Fremont County course has plenty of twists

COURTESY PHOTOS
Four Mile Ranch Golf Course in Canon City is more then 7,000 yards of twists and turns.
The green on the 16th hole at Four Mile Ranch in Canon City is a prime example of the undulating putting surfaces throughout the course.

BY JOE E. CERVI
THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN

Published: March 7, 2014;Last modified: March 7, 2014 08:35AM

CANON CITY — Golf is as calming as it is maddening, as fun as it is frustrating. It can turn great days horrible.

It can be a fantastic way to spend time outdoors and it makes hibernation an attractive alternative when your game goes south.

Welcome to Four Mile Ranch.

“You’ll never get bored playing here,” Billy Bernhardt, course general manager said. “Players tend to have a love-hate relationship with our course. They either love it or hate it, or love to hate it or hate to love it.”

Colorado golf course architect Jim Engh, designed the 7,053-yard, par-72 track just outside the east entrance to town on the north side of U.S. 50. It opened for play in 2008 and continues to grow in reputation. Recently, it was named in Colorado Avid Golfer as the third-best public play course in Southern Colorado behind The Broadmoor and Walking Stick.

The course is complete with rolling hills and deep valleys, wide-open fairways and tight approach shots, straightforward greens and ones that took a diabolical imagination to create.

“Some players walk off the 18th green and say that it’s too goofy or too quirky,” Bernhardt said. “More players walk off the green and can’t wait to play it again.

“The course was purposely extreme in design. Not only to set it apart, but to let people come out and just have fun playing the game.”

Engh’s fingerprints are all over golf courses across the globe. Four Mile remains a special place for the veteran architect.

“I’m in love with that little place,” he said. “It’s off the radar screen a little bit. I didn’t believe in the Banana Belt effect, how Canon City had this great winter climate, until we started building the course.

“With the exception of maybe San Diego, that’s the best winter golf climate in the country.”

Engh said the natural contours of the land drew him in.

“We didn’t move a lot of dirt. The holes just kind of fell into place,” he said. “Many of the greens are on their natural grade. As a designer, it’s hard to keep your hands off sometimes, but we didn’t have to do a whole lot there.”

One of Four Mile’s many signature holes is No. 14 — a 217-yard, blind par-3 where golfers ring a bell when they leave the green.

“Playing a lot of golf in Ireland gave me the guts to try to pull a hole like that off,” Engh said with a laugh.

Colorado State University-Pueblo head football coach John Wristen lists Four Mile Ranch as one of his favorites.

“It’s a great getaway; it feels like you’re in the mountains and you’re 25 minutes from Pueblo,” Wristen said. “The views from some of those holes are amazing.”

Wristen enjoys Four Mile’s quirks.

“There are some unique putts and breaks and it’s always different,” he said. “There are some blind shots and I’ll hit what I thought was a great shot and go look for my ball and say, ‘Where did it go?’ ”

Joe Carpio is superintendent and the course is open for play. Bernhardt said that it should begin to green up, “about when the Masters starts (in April). That’s pretty much how I’ve based my whole life’s calendar, playing green golf courses around the Masters.”

Green fees are $45 on weekdays, $55 on weekends, and that includes carts as it is recommended that players ride. Bernhardt said the course offers twilight and online specials as well.